DB Schenker Rail Automotive

DB Schenker: Some 200 container trains run from Germany to China for BMW

23 days of transport time needed for the nearly 11,000-kilometer journey • More than 6,500 containers filled with automobile parts have rolled to China since the start of operations

Schenker Rail Automotive, the Deutsche Bahn automobile specialist in rail freight transport, has already managed some 200 container trains filled with automobile parts on their way from Leipzig and Wackersdorf to Shenyang in northeast China for BMW. More than 4,700 containers on 126 trains have rolled from Leipzig to the BMW plant in Shenyang since commencement of the contract in September 2011. Since November 2010, one train a week has travelled from Wackersdorf to the site in China. By May 20, 72 trains loaded with 2,600 containers had been transported from Bavaria to Shenyang in Liaoning province.

The trains take a total of 23 days to cover the stretch of just under 11,000 kilometers. "With this attractive transit time, the direct trains are more than twice as fast as transport via ocean-going ship and into the Chinese hinterland. This is creating important momentum for the Eurasian land bridge. Together with our partners, we will continue promoting the land transport alternative," says Dr. Karl-Friedrich Rausch, Member of the Management Board responsible for Transportation and Logistics at DB Mobility Logistics AG.

The route extends across Poland, Belarus and Russia into China. DB Schenker Rail manages the trains in cooperation with TransContainer, the freight subsidiary of the Russian Railways (RZD), and the Far East Landbridge company (FELB). The containers are moved by crane to different gauges twice during the trip – onto broad gauge on the border between Poland and Belarus and onto standard gauge at the border between Russia and China in Manzhouli.

DB Schenker Logistics, the logistics division of DB, has established a logistics center in the north of Leipzig. Approximately 8,000 various parts from BMW supplier plants are received here, packed and stored as needed in the containers on the center's 63,000 square meters of space. The containers are placed on carrier cars on a siding activated specifically for this purpose at a neighboring site that once belonged to Quelle and then sent on their way.

Last modified: 20.05.2012